HARARE magistrate Marehwanazvo Gofa on Thursday dismissed the bail application of Mike Chimombe and Moses Mpofu for the third time on a case the duo is facing allegations of submitting fake documents when they were bidding for the US$9 million Harare street lights rehabilitation tender.
In her ruling magistrate, Gofa said there is a need to individualise bail, since council officials were arrested with a different charge and as such the law cannot be applied similarly.
The duo is represented by Tapson Dzvetero and Arshiel Mugiya.
The matter was postponed to November 28 for routine remand.
It is the State’s case that sometimes in January, Harare City Council embarked on the rehabilitation of street lights in preparation for the Sadc summit hosted by Zimbabwe in August.
The court heard that council invited bids and 11 companies responded, including Juluka Endo Joint Venture (Pvt) Ltd, a company co-owned by Moses Mpofu.
The invitation to tender stipulated that all prospective bidders should have stamped audited financial statements for the last two years.
The bid also required proof of payment of special procurement oversight committee and administration fees, among other requirements.
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Prosecutor Anesu Chirenje told the court that on April 19 this year that an evaluation committee awarded four companies eight lots to rehabilitate the street lights.
Mpofu’s company failed to meet the requirements because its audited statements did not have an audit opinion, which was a prerequisite for bidding.
However, council went on to invite Mpofu’s company to submit a fresh bid and it re-submitted the bid document containing false statements.
Mpofu allegedly misrepresented that his company was compliant with the requirements of general regulations.
According to court documents, Mpofu submitted a bid security obtained on March 26 which his company had used in a previous unsuccessful tender.
He allegedly submitted audit documents which they claimed were prepared by three consultancy companies, which, according to the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission, were unregistered.
Mpofu’s company was allegedly awarded the contract.
The State alleged that Chimombe signed as a witness, which culminated in them receiving a part payment of US$260 000.
